Sn0wBreeze now lets you install iOS 5 beta without a developer account

Apple is expected to publicly release iOS 5 in the coming months, bringing an improved notification system, wireless synchronization, and iCloud integration to iOS. If you have an Apple developer account you can install a beta version of iOS 5 right now. In fact, you’ve been able to do that for months. But last night hacker ih8sn0w released a new tool that will allow you to install iOS 5 beta 5 even if you don’t have a developer account.

What you need is Sn0wbreeze 2.8 beta 5 and the latest Apple firmware. When you run Sn0wbreeze you can build custom firmware for your device based on iOS 5 beta, and there’s an option to remove the UDID developer check. It will also remove the beta timer — which means that your beta software won’t expire when the official beta period runs out.

That said, you’re probably still better off waiting for Apple to publicly launch iOS 5 beta before installing it on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. But if you’re OK with running unsupported software on your device, you understand that you could seriously mess up your system if something goes wrong, and you’re really unwilling to pay $99 for a developer account, I guess now there’s another way to get iOS 5 beta 5 onto your device.

Sn0wbreeze 2.8 beta 5 supports the iPhone 3GS and up, the iPod touch 3rd generation and up, and the original iPad. In addition to letting you install iOS 5 beta, Sn0wbreeze will jailbreak the operating system for you — but it’s a tethered jailbreak, which means you’ll need to connect your mobile device to a computer and run the software again whenever you reboot.